Through the personal stories of three severely obese women who choose weight-loss surgery, All of Me shines a fresh light on the causes, challenges, and intense psychological struggles surrounding obesity in our society, as well as our attitudes and prejudices towards the obese.

Through the personal stories of three severely obese women who choose weight-loss surgery, All of Me shines a fresh light on the causes, challenges, and intense psychological struggles surrounding obesity in our society, as well as our attitudes and prejudices towards the obese.

The "girls", as they call themselves, have been friends for years, having met through the Size Acceptance Movement. They've unsuccessfully tried every diet and pill in...

Through the personal stories of three severely obese women who choose weight-loss surgery, All of Me shines a fresh light on the causes, challenges, and intense psychological struggles surrounding obesity in our society, as well as our attitudes and prejudices towards the obese.

The "girls", as they call themselves, have been friends for years, having met through the Size Acceptance Movement. They've unsuccessfully tried every diet and pill in an effort to lose weight. Getting older and facing more health and mobility challenges, they choose gastric band or gastric bypass surgery as a last resort.

With searing honesty, the girls take us through their struggles before and after surgery, including a host of issues and consequences, some they expected, some they feared, and some they never could have imagined. They have varied post-op experiences, but one reality is true for all of them -- the surgery means the loss of their primary coping strategy (eating). And trying to shed hundreds of pounds changes everything in their lives -- their health, their self-images, their marriages, and even their friendships.

These women's stories represent the more than 200,000 Americans a year who choose weight-loss surgery, 80% of them women, as well as the millions of Americans who struggle with obesity and weight loss. Our society's standard diet and exercise talking points do not compute for many of those needing to lose a significant amount of weight.

All of Me provides a unique and thoughtful look at a community of people that is often vilified, the butt of jokes, or quite simply ignored in our society, and encourages viewers to examine their own prejudices and complicated relationships with food, fat, and their bodies.

This multi-festival film is a portrayal of the fortitude of an immigrant 'war bride' in America. Seventy-six-year-old Young-Ja Wike is one of the 10,000 Korean women who married American G.I.s. after the war. For them marriage was the only escape from the crushing poverty of post-war Korea. 'Grandma' lives in Sout...

This multi-festival film is a portrayal of the fortitude of an immigrant 'war bride' in America. Seventy-six-year-old Young-Ja Wike is one of the 10,000 Korean women who married American G.I.s. after the war. For them marriage was the only escape from the crushing poverty of post-war Korea. 'Grandma' lives in South Jersey with her uncaring, rather brutish husband in a kind of domestic servitude. She has brought up three unappreciative children, w...This multi-festival film is a portrayal of the fortitude of an immigrant 'war bride' in America. Seventy-six-year-old Young-Ja Wike is one of the 10,000 Korean women who married American G.I.s. after the war. For them marriage was the only escape from the crushing poverty of post-war Korea. 'Grandma' lives in South Jersey with her uncaring, rather brutish husband in a kind of domestic servitude. She has brought up three unappreciative children, working doggedly to feed the family and run the household. On her own she cultivates a colorful garden of chili peppers which she dries and sells. Never having learned English, she is isolated from the community, and from her family as well. 'Grandma' opens her heart to the Korean filmmaker, revealing the pathos of forty years in exile. High School College Adult
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Filmed in a small town in the south, Mother Love is a fresh look at one of the most formative relationships of a woman's life. It introduces us to four mothers and daughters of contrasting age, class and family dynamics. Their stories reflect individual circumstances, but also echo similar themes, proving there ar...

Filmed in a small town in the south, Mother Love is a fresh look at one of the most formative relationships of a woman's life. It introduces us to four mothers and daughters of contrasting age, class and family dynamics. Their stories reflect individual circumstances, but also echo similar themes, proving there are certain traits that almost all mother/daughter relationships have in common.
The mothers share what is involved in caring for a chil...Filmed in a small town in the south, Mother Love is a fresh look at one of the most formative relationships of a woman's life. It introduces us to four mothers and daughters of contrasting age, class and family dynamics. Their stories reflect individual circumstances, but also echo similar themes, proving there are certain traits that almost all mother/daughter relationships have in common.
The mothers share what is involved in caring for a child from infancy, through the teens and on to adulthood. Closeness and a need for separation are, in turn, revealed by the daughters' behavior and interaction with their mothers. Many of the conflicts arise from the same root-- the mother's desire for their daughter's safety, versus the daughter's desire for independence.
One divorced mother instills feminist thinking in her daughter. Another tries to get her daughter's mind off boys and on to school. One daughter married a man her mother disapproved of and has lived to regret it. Another high spirited daughter dreams of a singing career in New York, while her mother tries to keep her close to home.
This spontaneous and compassionate film will touch a chord among women... as well as fathers, brothers and sons. Adult College High School
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“I love my mother, but I just don’t want to be like her.” Why would successful women from the world’s second largest economic power choose to start their lives over in New York City? The documentary Mother's Way , Daughters’ Choice explores how several Japanese women struggled to reconcile their traditio...

“I love my mother, but I just don’t want to be like her.” Why would successful women from the world’s second largest economic power choose to start their lives over in New York City? The documentary Mother's Way , Daughters’ Choice explores how several Japanese women struggled to reconcile their traditional upbringing with their desire to create unique lives. To understand these struggles, the director, Kyoko Gasha, shows the deep, powe...“I love my mother, but I just don’t want to be like her.” Why would successful women from the world’s second largest economic power choose to start their lives over in New York City? The documentary Mother's Way , Daughters’ Choice explores how several Japanese women struggled to reconcile their traditional upbringing with their desire to create unique lives. To understand these struggles, the director, Kyoko Gasha, shows the deep, powerful influences of Japanese culture on her own life. Kyoko also uncovers stories of other Japanese women in New York City, weaving parallel tales of guilt, denial, sacrifice, success and joy. This is a story of cultures clashing on a personal level.
Kyoko's own story illustrates the difficulties associated with being a traditional Japanese wife and mother while pursuing a demanding career as a broadcast journalist. Kyoko moved to New York where she succeeded as a broadcast journalist for the world’s largest news organization and an active parent to her daughter. Her story is echoed by other women in Mothers‘ Way, Daughters’ Choice: Nozomi, a banker, Akiko, a corporate lawyer, Sumie a travel agent and Noriko a director of a non-government organization. They all experienced the influences of their birth culture and concluded that they would have to move to a different environment to breathe. Beautifully crafted, this film tells a universal story of the influences of mothers on their daughters and how growth can at once be a painful and rewarding experience.
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How does the average man find a wife in materialistic Shanghai? There are two single males to every single female and the women are increasingly picky and middle-class. The effects of the one-child policy combined with a rapid revolution in China's values and lifestyles, have created increasingly selective middle-...

How does the average man find a wife in materialistic Shanghai? There are two single males to every single female and the women are increasingly picky and middle-class. The effects of the one-child policy combined with a rapid revolution in China's values and lifestyles, have created increasingly selective middle- class Shanghai women. For working class men, finding a wife is a quest that requires money, time, and the strength to withstand countl...How does the average man find a wife in materialistic Shanghai? There are two single males to every single female and the women are increasingly picky and middle-class. The effects of the one-child policy combined with a rapid revolution in China's values and lifestyles, have created increasingly selective middle- class Shanghai women. For working class men, finding a wife is a quest that requires money, time, and the strength to withstand countless disappointments.
Wu is an electrician, earning 1,000 yuan (U.S.$125) per month. His ex-wife left him to find a wealthier man, and he has spent a large percentage of his income on dating agencies and newspaper classifieds in the hope of finding a nice woman to marry. Aileen is one of a growing number of professional, independent Shanghai women who no longer feel the traditional pressures of marrying early. Like many others, Aileen prefers foreign boyfriends, thereby completely skipping over local men like Wu in favor of finding a mate of higher status.
Shanghai Bride is a rare portrait of ordinary people in an extraordinary social predicament, a window on the materialistic and cut-throat nature of Shanghai's marriage market. High School College Adult
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Set in the verdant hills of Kwa-Zulu Natal, this is an intimate and spontaneous depiction of the lives of women left behind while their husbands, migrant laborers, work in the mines far away. By turns sad, touching or amusing, this film bears eloquent testimony to the ravages of an economic system which tears fami...

Set in the verdant hills of Kwa-Zulu Natal, this is an intimate and spontaneous depiction of the lives of women left behind while their husbands, migrant laborers, work in the mines far away. By turns sad, touching or amusing, this film bears eloquent testimony to the ravages of an economic system which tears families apart to feed South Africa's insatiable mines. These women raise huge families, tend the fields, herd the cattle, and generally ru...Set in the verdant hills of Kwa-Zulu Natal, this is an intimate and spontaneous depiction of the lives of women left behind while their husbands, migrant laborers, work in the mines far away. By turns sad, touching or amusing, this film bears eloquent testimony to the ravages of an economic system which tears families apart to feed South Africa's insatiable mines. These women raise huge families, tend the fields, herd the cattle, and generally run village affairs. One says defiantly "I'm the man of the house." As they talk with each other and the filmmaker one hears many of the same joys and sorrows, angers and hopes as one would anywhere in the world. But here life is shaped by the absence of men, who seem to come home only to make children and contribute paltry pay to the subsistence of their families. Some women treasure their rare nights of passion with their husbands, while others resent their being left to languish in loneliness and sexual frustration. The filmmaker, a Western woman married to a Zulu musician has lived in the society. Her film captures the warmth and humor of the Zulu women, which they retain despite the challenges of their lives. College Adult
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directed by Alison Burns, fl. 1990; produced by Sally Bochner, fl. 1988-2010, National Film Board of Canada (Montréal, QC: National Film Board of Canada, 1995), 12 mins

It's never easy reconciling fairy tales to reality, especially when the reality is, to say the least, complicated. You know things are tough when young people don't expect a good relationship, let alone a perfect one, because as one young woman puts it, "all good things must come to an end." Participants discuss t...

It's never easy reconciling fairy tales to reality, especially when the reality is, to say the least, complicated. You know things are tough when young people don't expect a good relationship, let alone a perfect one, because as one young woman puts it, "all good things must come to an end." Participants discuss their expectations of marriage, homosexual relationships, and how the changing roles (and role models) of men and women have affected ma...It's never easy reconciling fairy tales to reality, especially when the reality is, to say the least, complicated. You know things are tough when young people don't expect a good relationship, let alone a perfect one, because as one young woman puts it, "all good things must come to an end." Participants discuss their expectations of marriage, homosexual relationships, and how the changing roles (and role models) of men and women have affected marital responsibilities.
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Many lovers would set off to a pretty peaceful spot in the mountains and sing sad songs together before committing suicide they were happier dying with their loved one than living in an arranged marriage with an unwanted spouse.

Many lovers would set off to a pretty peaceful spot in the mountains and sing sad songs together before committing suicide they were happier dying with their loved one than living in an arranged marriage with an unwanted spouse. College Adult

Westerners have always been averse to the idea of arranged marriages, holding up the "love match" as the ideal. In this film, a young, divorced European explores attitudes among the educated Indian couples of her acquaintance, asking them how they met and married their spouses. What emerges is an engaging portrait...

Westerners have always been averse to the idea of arranged marriages, holding up the "love match" as the ideal. In this film, a young, divorced European explores attitudes among the educated Indian couples of her acquaintance, asking them how they met and married their spouses. What emerges is an engaging portrait of young marrieds who have striven for personal happiness within a social system which would seem to negate these considerations. In I...Westerners have always been averse to the idea of arranged marriages, holding up the "love match" as the ideal. In this film, a young, divorced European explores attitudes among the educated Indian couples of her acquaintance, asking them how they met and married their spouses. What emerges is an engaging portrait of young marrieds who have striven for personal happiness within a social system which would seem to negate these considerations. In India marriages are a family matter; the best interests of the family often govern the arrangements. Romance is not usually a consideration, nor are the feelings of the couple. We are taken to a marriage bureau, where earnest parents look over the qualifications of potential mates for their children; education, caste, religion, profession, physical attributes all figure in the equation. Marriages can be used to improve the social standing of the family. A rich, but low caste father has found a high-borne groom of shady reputation for his daughter and showers him with jewels. The bride accepts her fate and sadly drives off with her new husband after an opulent wedding. In our society where so many marriages fail and so many young people find it challenging to find a suitable mate, a glimpse into another world is both fascinating and ironic. College Adult
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In a backlash against feminism, European men are choosing "mail order" brides. This film follows Danish men as they meet and marry Philippine girls. The stories are in turn humorous and poignant, as we follow these women half-way around the world.

In a backlash against feminism, European men are choosing "mail order" brides. This film follows Danish men as they meet and marry Philippine girls. The stories are in turn humorous and poignant, as we follow these women half-way around the world. College Adult